Thank you to all who responded (especially mongatu!). I was sure I had a good seal before - but I did exactly as you said and it's like they are a completely different set of earbuds. The bass is BOOMIN now. (ouch....gotta turn down the volume a bit....)

What a difference!!!! (I also left them plugged into my laptop for a few hours to "break them in" while I went to the mall to get the Bose Triports that were on clearance for 50% off. I know they aren't noise cancelling and aren't QC2's - but they are still excellent headphones so I wanted those as a backup in case the E3c's didn't work)